For the longest time, I have been told that health is everything but then I have never really taken it so seriously until recently. I used several methods on how to be “healthier”; however, it was always temporary and never sticked to my lifestyle because I always bounced back to how I used to be — junk food, sweets and fast food. Balanced diet has always been on top of my mind but again and again became the least of my priorities. I know what I needed to do but lack the commitment to follow through.
My sweet tooth can be seen as something normal at my age; however, I do not want to have any regrets later on for not being able to take action on this early on. My skin condition and mood for the day/week reflects what I have been eating and doing and trust me, it shows whether I have been taking care of myself or not. I’m aging and health is not a joke anymore. This does not mean that I cannot eat my favourite desserts anymore rather this is a wake-up call that I must learn self-discipline.
This is such a vulnerable topic for me because this has always been one of my insecurities. There were doubts for me in posting this but I knew that this would help me stick to what I will be starting: the ME project.
I was always the big one when I was a kid (among the boys and the girls) and was not really comfortable in my own skin. As I was growing, I became numb to such comments and therefore, have fixed my mind that I was never the “normal” kid. Then again, what is the definition of “normal”? The biggest highlight was when I became involved in a sport that made me lose a lot of weight. People noticed and since I used to be extremely externally motivated, I gained some confidence to speak up or be myself because I thought now that I looked better, I was given more opportunity to be part of their world. That was then, that was how I saw the world: I had to look good to feel good. Even then, I became more conscious about how I weighed because I knew I either had to keep it or lose more. It was a mental trick that kept playing in my head never-endingly. Now, it came to a point that I became comfortable in always teasing myself around my family saying, “I look so fat”, “my thighs are ginormous”, “my face is so bloated”, “why am I so big?” and so on and so forth. Comfortable in that context, is not a good thing because I have realized that it is slowly becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy that instead of keeping it to myself.. I have learned to share it to the people I care most about that I did not like myself. I had to do something about that.
In this generation, I can see that health is becoming more and more important as people start to appreciate natural ingredients in meals and find ways to exercise regularly. The pressure that I see in social media has prompted me to look at myself and the lifestyle I have in a different angle. I noticed several things: I blame my mom for buying junk food and sweets, I go for the easy food because I “do not have time” to prepare real food, and I am motivated to eat healthy only when an event comes up. These were not positive approaches because I was letting my environment determine my ability to take care of myself. It was driving me nuts.
I am sharing you this not because I despise my chubby-ness rather I am acknowledging that I am deteriorating my mental, physical, and emotional health due to my lack of discipline of prioritizing my health. I am just in my 20s but just like what Meg Jay said in her “Defining Decade” book & TEDtalk, we must learn how to delay gratification (meaning: control cravings and immediate pleasures) and build our personal brand (meaning: being strong inside and out). How am I able to accomplish my goals in life if I, myself, have achieved what I needed to get to where I want to be? Moreover, this is more than just my weight, it is also about taking care of my future self.
Right now, I am committing to a 365-journey to a better me where I will document my daily path towards a healthier lifestyle to forever. Follow me on my journey. 🙂
P.S. You are more than welcome to introduce your health journey in here too. I will be more than thrilled to hear all about it and I believe that the more that we come together to promoting the importance of health in one’s life, the more fulfilling the voyage will be towards our destination: a better us, you & me!
Wonder Girl 